Sometime around AD 405, a
sixteen year-old boy strolling the English seaside was attacked by pirates.
They kidnapped him and sold him on the slave market to a chieftain in Northern
Ireland who forced him to herd pigs. The young man endured filth, the elements,
separation from family, and years of servitude.
Yet the open air and solitude
gave him precious time for spiritual reflection, and he saw in his miserable
condition a mirror of his own sinful soul. His nominal boyhood faith grew into
a vibrant hope and a longing for freedom. After six years of bondage, he escaped.
He boarded a nearby ship, but did not end up in his home country. Instead, it
landed in what is today France. He came in contact with a monastery. He stayed
for a while, deepening and enriching his faith. He profited so much he stayed
for a few years; but he still missed his home. Eventually, he returned. There
was a great celebration and he was treated as if he had risen from the dead. In
a way, he had……
(Full text at link below)
The life of St. Patrick displays the
type of faith that Christians sorely need today: it is a faith that is not
merely private. It is a faith lived out, that has great vision, big goals, that
confronts tyrants, gives people hope, and transforms the world around it.
We,
too, live in slavery, though ours is largely self-imposed. We, too, are
surrounded by druids (often called “liberals,” but sometimes “evangelicals,” today
too) and impinged by various herds of social swine. There are plenty of
pirates, pigs, and tyrants; wiccans and warlords abound. But these are not so
much the problem. The greater problem is that Christians too often fear the type of
confrontations necessary to drive out these demons and change society.
Patrick didn’t. He had the vision and
he took the first steps for which that vision called. The rest came in history.
It would be good this St. Patrick’s Day to make a commitment to yourself and to
God, if you have not done so already, just to begin to change your mind-set.
Just begin asking the questions: What would a Christian society look like? What
would it take to get there? What am I willing to sacrifice to make it happen?
That would be a good beginning. I have done this exercise in detail myself. You
can start reading my outline here.
And
then, Go thou and do like St. Patrick.
Read the full text here: St.
Patrick’s vision of freedom and world-transformation
